Many people will feel alarm at the prospect of more than 60 London police stations being closed or downgraded in a bid to cut the Met’s funding gap. That is the plan outlined in a Metropolitan Police document seen by this paper.

Veteran broadcaster Sue MacGregor has lent her backing to BBC chairman Lord Patten. The former presenter of the Today programme was among guests at Riba last night for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, which was awarded to Wade Davis for his book Into the Silence.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller today dismissed calls for an independent inquiry into the Jimmy Savile scandal but took a swipe at the BBC for failing to broadcast its own television investigation into allegations against the presenter.